Dame Kelly Holmes has had her fill of empty soundbites and empty arenas, white
elephants and red herrings. “People keep talking about obesity rates and how
school sport is now good,” she says in a café by her chic office. “They were
doing that when I was an athlete. Don’t talk. Bloody do something.”

Six months on from the end of the Olympics and Holmes is doing her bit for the
much-vaunted legacy. An army career segued into a traumatic trip to the top,
complete with self-harm and cathartic golds, followed by a post-sport
reinvention as a businesswoman and educator.